JP2008000749A - Cooling apparatus and cooling method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a cooling apparatus and a cooling method which uniformly and efficiently cool flake raw material and the like highly heated by cooking to adjust their temperature to suitable one for the following processing step. <P>SOLUTION: The cooling apparatus is equipped with a cooling tank having an upper open part, a side wall part with a jacket, and a spherical bottom part with a discharge means, an inner agitation member where a plurality of agitation bars are implanted in a ring-shaped agitation frame member extending in the radially outward direction so as to have a nearly circular rotation locus, an outer agitation member where a scraping member coming into contact with the bottom inside of the cooling tank and scraping adhering raw material is installed on the frame member. The inner agitation member and the outer agitation member are installed so as to be rotated and driven around the same horizontal axis. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

The present invention relates to a cooling device and a cooling method for use in a flake production apparatus and the like, and more specifically, to efficiently produce flakes and the like made from a raw material whose flowability is remarkably changed with temperature while maintaining uniform quality. The present invention relates to a cooling device and a cooling method for cooling raw materials.
Here, in the present specification, the flakes are foods, medicines, pigments and the like that are granulated. Taking food as an example, seasonings such as curry flakes, stew flakes, hayashi flakes, sauce flakes, It shall mean chocolate flakes and the like.

  An apparatus for producing curry, stew and other roux that cooks food ingredients consisting of multiple types of ingredients in a heating container while stirring them, while heating starch-based ingredients such as wheat flour and fat-based ingredients. A so-called wheat flour roux is produced by stirring under conditions, and powder raw materials such as salt, sugar and spices are added to the wheat flour roux, and further cooking by heating and stirring is performed to obtain a melted pasty roux.

  As an apparatus for performing this stirring, a stirring member is disposed in a stirring vessel having a spherical bottom so that the stirring member can be driven to rotate about an inclined axis, and the stirring member is rotated about a plurality of rotating members, that is, the inclined axis. An agitation device is disclosed that is composed of an inner rotation member and an outer rotation member, and that forms the inner agitation member asymmetrically about a rotation axis. The stirring vessel is covered by a single jacket. (For example, see Patent Document 1)

  As another background art, regarding a stirrer, a stirring chamber having a single jacket is provided with inner and outer double stirring blades that rotate about the same axis, and the outer stirring blade is rotated in one direction on the outer periphery of the stirring chamber. A configuration in which the inner blade is rotated in the other direction so as not to interfere with the outer blade at the central portion of the stirring chamber has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 2).

Concerning spreading of a fluid raw material whose degree of fluidity varies depending on temperature on a cooling conveyor, strands of the fluid raw material are formed on both side edges of the cooling conveyor so that the fluid raw material spills out of the cooling conveyor. The structure which prevents this is disclosed (for example, refer patent document 3).
On the other hand, after extending the flowable raw material on the cooling conveyor and the flowability of the flowable raw material is lost, the flowable raw material is deformed by passing around the pulley, and the flowable raw material is peeled off from the cooling conveyor and broken down. The structure to be made is disclosed (for example, refer nonpatent literature 1).

JP 2000-107579 A JP-A-1-168323 Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 62-4637 From the 205th page of the book "Granulation and granulation equipment" published by the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers

  The stirring container disclosed in the cited document 1 and the stirrer disclosed in the cited document 2 have a predetermined performance with respect to mixing and stirring of oil and fat-containing raw materials such as raw materials for carreaux, and heat treatment. Moreover, the said fat-and-oils containing raw material can be granulated by combining the cooling conveyor disclosed by the cited reference 3, and the granulation technique disclosed by the nonpatent literature 1. FIG.

  However, if the heated raw material is granulated as it is with a belt cooler, the oil crystal becomes unstable, the moldability is poor, and the viscosity of the raw material is too low to spread on the belt and cannot be granulated. There is. Furthermore, if the heated raw material is cooled too much, the fluidity decreases and it becomes difficult to discharge the raw material from the stirring vessel, or the raw material may be spread on the cooling conveyor with a predetermined uniform thickness. There is a problem that cannot be done. In general, the raw materials and the like of curry roux have poor fluidity and are not easily cooled uniformly, and it is difficult to transfer the apparatus by pipe transfer after cooling. Therefore, a flake manufacturing apparatus capable of continuous production using a heating and stirring apparatus and a belt cooler proposed in the prior art has not been developed in practice.

(Object of invention)

  An object of the present invention is to provide a cooling device and a cooling method that uniformly and efficiently cools a flake raw material or the like heated by cooking in a short time to a temperature convenient for the next processing step.

The present invention
A cooling tank having an upper open portion, a side wall portion provided with a jacket, and a bottom portion which is a spherical surface provided with discharge means;
A plurality of stirring bars extending radially outward in a ring-shaped stirring frame member, and an inner stirring member planted so as to have a substantially circular rotation locus;
An outer stirring member provided with a scraping member attached to the ring-shaped frame member to scrape the attached raw material in contact with the bottom inner surface of the cooling tank,
The cooling device is characterized in that the inner stirring member and the outer stirring member are rotatably driven about the same horizontal axis.

The present invention also provides
A cooling tank having an upper open portion, a side wall portion provided with a jacket, and a bottom portion which is a spherical surface provided with discharge means;
A plurality of stirring bars extending radially outward in a ring-shaped stirring frame member, and an inner stirring member planted so as to have a substantially circular rotation locus;
An outer stirring member provided with a scraping member attached to the ring-shaped frame member to scrape the attached raw material in contact with the bottom inner surface of the cooling tank,
The inner stirring member and the outer stirring member are provided to be driven to rotate about the same horizontal axis,
The side wall portion has an upper jacket and a lower jacket, and the discharge means cools the oil-containing material using a cooling device having a discharge jacket,
Flowing a refrigerant having a first temperature higher than the melting point of fats and oils contained in the raw material through the upper jacket and the jacket of the discharging means, and flowing a refrigerant having a second temperature lower than the first temperature through the lower jacket;
A step of discharging by the discharge means while flowing a refrigerant having a temperature equal to the first temperature through all the jackets after at least a part of the raw material is cooled to the first temperature. is there.

Embodiments of the present invention are as follows.
The side wall portion has an upper jacket and a lower jacket, and the discharge means has a discharge jacket.
The discharging means includes a screw pump.

  There is an effect that the flake raw material or the like heated to high temperature by cooking can be uniformly and efficiently cooled in a short time to a temperature convenient for the next processing step.

Hereinafter, a flake manufacturing apparatus including a cooling tank according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
As shown in FIG. 1, a flake production apparatus 10 for producing curry flakes is arranged on the downstream side of a kettle apparatus 12 that heat-treats the flake raw materials while stirring the raw flake raw materials. A cooling device 14 for cooling, a belt flaker 15 for cooling the cooked flake raw material arranged and cooled on the downstream side of the cooling device 14 by a double belt to form small pieces of the raw material, and downstream of the belt flaker 15 It has a crushing device 16 which is arranged to flake raw material pieces.

  The operation of the flake manufacturing apparatus 10 is as follows. Flakes raw materials such as fats and oils, wheat flour, spices, and mixed powders of the curry raw flake raw materials are charged into the pot device 12 through a charging pipe (not shown). The paste-like or rag-like flake raw material heated and stirred by the kettle device 12 is transferred from the kettle device 12 to the cooling device 14 by inverting and dropping the kettle device 12. The cooked flake raw material is further conveyed from the cooling device 14 to the belt flaker 15 by a screw pump 20 and a conveyance pipe 30 capable of controlling the temperature with a double structure. The cooked flake raw material is further conveyed from the belt flaker 15 to the pulverizer 16 by the conveyor belt 32.

  The flake manufacturing apparatus 10 transfers the cooked flake raw material from the kettle device 12 to the cooling device 14 in a short time by an appropriate means, and the stirring blades and the cooling jacket of the cooling device 14 act to make the raw material uniform and efficient. Cool in a short time. The cooling process is performed in a state where the raw material can be spread on the cooling conveyor with a uniform thickness and has a product temperature that maintains fluidity that can be transferred from the cooling device 14 to the belt flaker 15. Therefore, after the heated raw material is cooled by the cooling device 14, it is continuously conveyed to the belt flaker 15 and cooled and solidified, so that the flakes can be efficiently and continuously produced. In particular, the fact that the flake raw material can be continuously conveyed to the belt flaker 15 by the conveying pipe 30 by interposing the cooling device 14 is notable as an operation of the flake manufacturing apparatus for mass production.

The hook device 12 can employ any heating hook such as a slant shaft pot as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-107579, and has an appropriate mechanism that can reverse the hook portion by removing the lid portion. Prepare. When a stirring blade and a scraper are provided, the heat treatment can be performed more efficiently.

As shown in FIG. 2, the cooling device 14 includes a stirring blade 114 and a scraper 116 having a horizontal common rotation axis in a cooling tank 112 supported by a gantry 110 and opened upward. A first jacket 120 is provided on the upper side wall 118 of the cooling bath 112, and a second jacket 128 is provided on the lower side wall 124 and the bottom 126. As shown in FIG. 2, a discharge port 130 is provided in the lowest center portion of the bottom 126 of the cooling bath 112. The stirring blade 114 is provided with a temperature sensor 150 for measuring the temperature of the cooked flake raw material in the region below the center of the cooling bath 112.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a screw pump 134 is disposed below the discharge pipe 132 communicating with the discharge port 130. A third jacket 136 is provided on the outer wall covering the discharge pipe 132 and the screw pump 134.
The screw 174 and the pipe member 190 form discharge means. By rotating the screw 174 while maintaining the fluid state of the flake raw material by the heating of the third jacket 136 by the mechanism that covers these members with the third jacket 136, the flake raw material is smoothly and continuously applied as described later. To discharge.
The first jacket 120, the second jacket 128, and the third jacket 136 are configured such that a coolant such as a fluid whose temperature can be controlled independently circulates.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the stirring blade 114 has a plurality of stirring bars 142 extending radially outward in a rounded rectangular stirring frame member 140, and line end portions of the plurality of stirring bars 142. A line connecting the two (imaginary line 143) is almost circular. The stirring blade 114 is rotated by a stirring drive motor 144 attached to the outer surface of the gantry 110.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the scraper 116 has a plurality of resin scraping members 162 attached to almost the entire circumference of a ring-shaped scraper frame member 160. The scraping member 162 rotates in contact with the bottom inner surface of the cooling bath 112 to scrape the cooked flake raw material attached to the bottom inner surface. The scraper 116 is rotated by a scraper drive motor 164.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the cooling tank 112 is provided with a lid member 170 for closing the upper open portion. The lid member 170 is held by a lid holding frame 176 that is slid by a hydraulic cylinder 174 on a pair of rails 172 that are supported by the gantry 110 and extend horizontally. The lid member 170 is attached with an exhaust cylinder 178 for discharging steam generated from the cooked flake raw material during cooling, and a CIP cleaning liquid supply pipe 180.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the screw pump 134 includes a screw member 174 that is driven by a screw motor 192 in a discharge pipe 190 that extends horizontally. An inlet end 195 of the discharge pipe 190 communicates with a discharge hole 130 provided at the bottom center of the cooling tank 114. An outlet end portion 196 of the discharge pipe 190 communicates with the belt flaker 14 via the transport pipe 30.

In the cooling device 14, during the cooling operation, the stirring blade 114 and the scraper 116 continue to rotate, and the temperature sensor 150 measures the temperature of the flake raw material in the central region of the cooling bath 112.
In preparation for charging the heated flake raw material into the cooling bath 112, cooling water having a first temperature, for example, 60 ° C. is supplied to the first jacket 120 and the third jacket 136, and a second temperature, for example, 10 ° C. to 15 ° C. is supplied to the second jacket 128. Supply cooling water at ℃. The flake raw material is charged and cooled while stirring, and the temperature of the flake raw material in the central region of the cooling bath 112 is measured by the temperature sensor 150. When the temperature sensor 150 detects the first temperature of 60 ° C., 60 ° C. cooling water is supplied to the second jacket 128. When the temperature sensor 150 stably detects the first temperature of 60 ° C., it is determined that the flake raw material has been cooled, and the flake raw material is discharged from the cooling device 14.

  The mechanism of operation is that when the melting point of the oil and fat contained in the oil and fat-containing raw material is 50 ° C., for example, the cooling water of 60 ° C. (first temperature) higher than this is supplied to the first jacket 120 and the third jacket 136. During the cooling process, even if the flake raw material hits the upper portion of the side wall portion of the cooling tank 112, the oil and fat is melted by the heating of the first jacket 120, and the raw material flows down from the side wall portion and does not adhere. Further, the heating of the third jacket 120 prevents the material from sticking to the narrow gap of the discharging means. During this time, for example, the flake raw material at 100 ° C. at the beginning is gradually cooled by the cooling action of the second jacket 128. When the flake raw material is cooled to approximately the first temperature of 60 ° C., the 60 ° C. cooling water is also supplied to the second jacket 128 to heat the surface of the cooling device 14 on which the flake raw material hits. As a result, the flake raw material does not adhere to the cooling device 14, maintains fluidity, and is smoothly discharged from the cooling device 14.

As shown in FIG. 1, the belt flaker has a cooked flake raw material that is cooled to a predetermined temperature by the cooling device 14 and made into a crumbly or semi-kneaded state or a pasty state. The sheet is conveyed while being sandwiched between the upper cooling belt 201 and the lower cooling belt 202. The cooked flake raw material is further cooled and thinly adhered to the lower cooling belt 202. At the position where the conveyance by the cooling belt 200 is completed, the lower cooling belt 202 is wound around the pulley 204 to be deformed, and the cooked flake raw material that is thinly attached is peeled from the lower cooling belt 202. Upon peeling, the cooked flake raw material breaks down into small pieces.

  When a double belt flaker is used, the flake raw material can be efficiently cooled and solidified in a short time by the cooling action of the upper cooling belt 201 and the lower cooling belt 202, but the raw material is pressed by the upper and lower belts. If the cooling state of the raw material supplied to the flavor is not uniform, the oils and fats contained in the surface will float on the surface, and the oil crystals of the resulting flakes will tend to be unstable. Therefore, according to the present invention, the raw material is uniformly and efficiently cooled by the cooling device and continuously sent to the flaker, thereby eliminating the above problems and efficiently producing flakes of uniform quality. Is possible. Of course, the flake raw material can be cooled and flaked even with a single belt flaker.

  The feeder 220 supplies the cooked and cooled flake raw material from the transport pipe 30 to the lower cooling belt 202. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the feeder 220 has a substantially triangular hollow flat plate shape, and the space portion in the central portion is a passage portion 221 through which the cooked flake raw material passes, and the upper and lower surface portions are upper. They are a feeder jacket 222 and a lower feeder jacket 224.

  In addition to the lower opening 226 at the lower end edge, the feeder 220 is cut at both sides, that is, the portions corresponding to the two vertices on both sides of the lower edge of the triangle, so as to pierce the side opening 228. Accordingly, the cooked flake raw material is discharged from both the lower opening 226 and the side opening 228. A handle 229 is attached to the upper surface and the left and right side surfaces of the feeder 220 to facilitate transport of the heavy feeder 220.

  The passage portion 221 has a height, that is, a width in a direction perpendicular to a triangular plane, the entrance portion 230 connected to the transport pipe 30 is the largest and the cross section thereof is circular, and the lower open portion 226 is the smallest and the cross section is rectangular. And the middle is formed by the surface connecting them.

Configuration of Crushing Device The crushing device 16 according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a discharge housing 250 and a crushing housing 252 as shown in FIG. The discharge housing 250 prevents the manufactured flakes from scattering and guides the flakes to a downstream packaging device (not shown), a stock device (not shown), or the like. The crushing device 16 further rotates a bearing device 260 that is appropriately supported so as not to prevent the manufactured flakes from dropping, a shaft member 262 that is supported by the bearing device 260 and extends to the lower part of the discharge housing 250, and a shaft member 262. A suitable drive source (not shown).

  A perforated screen 300 is disposed in the crushing housing 252 and is detachably attached to the crushing housing 252. The perforated screen 300 is a disc-shaped thin plate made of stainless steel or the like. The perforated screen 300 has an opening 302 through which the shaft member 262 passes in the center, and a plurality of substantially square holes A are arranged side by side in other regions. Therefore, the perforated screen 300 has a lattice shape as a whole, and its thickness is about 4 mm.

  As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, four stirring blades 310 are attached to the shaft member 262 so as to extend radially at equal angular intervals around the shaft member 262, above the perforated screen 300. ing. The stirring blade 310 has its longitudinal edge close to the upper surface of the perforated screen 300, and the other longitudinal edge thereof is lifted with an inclination of 45 degrees from this portion, and when rotated, the flake raw material is added to the perforated screen 300. It is attached in such a manner that the inclined surface presses the flake raw material.

  A plurality of first pin members 320 extending in the radial direction around the shaft member 262 are provided on the upper portion of the shaft member 262 so as to face different angular directions at different height positions. The upper end portion of the shaft member 262 has a conical shape with a tapered shape at the top. A single first pin member 320 may be provided, and when a plurality of first pin members 320 are provided, they may be provided at the same height position. When the plurality of first pin members 320 are provided at different height positions and facing different angular directions, the flake raw material is not scattered and retained on the perforated screen 300 and efficiently pulverized and sized. It is preferable because it is possible.

  As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, a plurality of second pin members 340 are fixedly attached to the shaft member 262 at different height positions on the inner wall of the crushing housing 252. The single second pin member 340 or a plurality of second pin members 340 can be provided at the same height position, but it is preferable to attach a plurality of second pin members 340 at different height positions for the same reason as in the case of the first pin member 320.

  The flake production apparatus of the present invention is particularly suitable for the production of oil-containing flakes, oil-containing food flakes, and oil-containing roux food flakes such as curry, stew, hayashi, and demiglace sauce.

It is composition explanatory drawing of the flake manufacturing apparatus containing the cooling tank of embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing of the cooling tank of the embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing of the screw pump of the embodiment of this invention. It is a top view of the feeder of embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing of the feeder of embodiment of this invention. It is a vertical sectional view of the crusher of the embodiment of the present invention. It is a top view of the crusher of the embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

A hole
10 Flakes manufacturing equipment
12 Pot device
14 Cooling device
16 Crusher
30 Transport pipe
32 Conveyor belt
112 frame
114 Chain lifting device
120 pot
130 Lid
134 Bearing
136 Holding arm
140 jacket
146 Swivel joint
148 discharge pipe
160 Lid body
164 scraper
166 stirring blade
180 Oil supply nozzle

Claims (4)

A cooling tank having an upper open portion, a side wall portion provided with a jacket, and a bottom portion which is a spherical surface provided with discharge means;
A plurality of stirring bars extending radially outward in a ring-shaped stirring frame member, and an inner stirring member planted so as to have a substantially circular rotation locus;
An outer stirring member provided with a scraping member attached to the ring-shaped frame member to scrape the attached raw material in contact with the bottom inner surface of the cooling tank,
The cooling device, wherein the inner stirring member and the outer stirring member are provided to be driven to rotate about the same horizontal axis.   The cooling apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the side wall has an upper jacket and a lower jacket, and the discharge means has a discharge jacket.   The cooling device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the discharge means includes a screw pump. A method for cooling an oil-containing material using the cooling device according to claim 2,
Flowing a refrigerant having a first temperature higher than the melting point of fats and oils contained in the raw material through the upper jacket and the jacket of the discharging means, and flowing a refrigerant having a second temperature lower than the first temperature through the lower jacket;
And a step of discharging by the discharging means while flowing a refrigerant having a temperature equal to the first temperature through all the jackets after at least a part of the raw material is cooled to the first temperature.

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